Coast Guard sees influx in migrant boat interdictions as land border security strengthens
Coast Guard Capt. Jason Hagen says USCG District 11 has encountered approximately two migrant vessels per day over the past three months as land border security strengthens.
Coast Guardsmen in Southern California are seeing an influx of migrant crossings by boat — and with them, more foreign nationals from U.S. adversary countries.
Over the last 90 days, the Coast Guard has recorded about 200 migrant boat encounters near the San Diego coast, amounting to approximately two migrant boat interventions per day, officials told Fox News Digital.
More daily migrant boat interdictions
"We see a myriad of elderly, male, female, children," Coast Guard District 11 Capt. Jason Hagen told Fox News Digital. "We're starting to see an uptick in other nationalities, as well, which is a…national security concern because it's not just your economic Mexicans looking to come to the United States for work. It's also … bad actors coming from other countries. We've seen nationalities to include Chinese, Russian, Uzbekistan[i], Pakistan[i]. It's really all over the place."
Hagen added that 10 or 15 years ago, most boats carried migrants from Mexico.
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Over the last 90 days, the Coast Guard has recorded about 200 migrant boat encounters near the San Diego coast, amounting to approximately two migrant boat interventions per day, officials told Fox News Digital. (Coast Guard San Diego)
The Coast Guard captain attributes the recent uptick in boat encounters and "landing" encounters, when Coast Guardsmen find beached boats with abandoned life jackets, to increased land border security under the Trump administration.
"The smugglers have to move their operations somewhere."
"What you've seen in the news certainly has an effect on the maritime environment," Hagen explained. "It's kind of like squeezing a balloon — you squeeze the balloon, and the air pushes to the other side, right? Well, that's the same thing that's happening with the migrant flow. They're locking down the land border pretty good … where they used to get thousands a day. Now, they're now down in the hundreds a day. So, the migrants have to go somewhere. The smugglers have to move their operations somewhere. And we're starting to see an uptick in the maritime environment."
The Coast Guard captain attributes the recent uptick in boat encounters and "landing" encounters as well as an increase in foreign nationals from China, Russia and Pakistan being smuggled by boat. (Coast Guard San Diego)
Hagen also noted the dangers of smuggling activity at sea.
"Smugglers are not in the business of safety. They're in the business of money."
"Just last night … we had a case where we interdicted a vessel 20 miles offshore with 16 people on board who … their boat was disabled at sea, and they [were] at sea for two days with no food or water. … Had we not found them, they could have just continued drifting west and further into the Pacific Ocean."
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The Coast Guard locates a vessel carrying 16 people that had been stranded at sea for two days. (Coast Guard San Diego)
In February, the Coast Guard San Diego announced that the Cutter Waesche crew offloaded more than 37,000 pounds of cocaine worth more than $275 million in San Diego. The offload was the result of 11 separate suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions between December and February.
Incentives for smugglers, migrants
Republican California State Rep. Carl DeMaio told Fox News Digital that migrants are incentivized by taxpayer-funded benefits — such as housing, travel and food — when they arrive in the Golden State. On the flip side, smugglers are incentivized by the hefty payments migrants will make to be escorted across the border, or in this case, to U.S. shores.
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"Human trafficking is an evil enterprise. You've got these cartels and coyotes who are going … to these illegal immigrants saying, pay me $6,000, and I will bring you and your family into the United States," DeMaio explained, adding that "this is a multibillion-dollar industry that preys on people."
The California state representative added that the victims of the smuggling enterprise are both the migrants harmed along the journey and U.S. taxpayers.
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In February, the Coast Guard said the Cutter Waesche crew offloaded approximately more than 37,000 pounds of cocaine worth more than $275 million in San Diego. (Coast Guard San Diego)
"It is a dangerous journey, and it also is very predatory, because many of these individuals cannot afford the $6,000 to come across land. We are being told by Border Patrol that the cost of coming through the waterways on a boat can be $12[,000] to $15,000," DeMaio said.
"It's also dangerous because people have drowned. People have had to be rescued on boats that are not seaworthy. So, for all the fixation that California Democrats have with protecting people and regulating unsafe transportation and any unsafe industry, they're the facilitators of the most evil enterprise of our time."
San Diego's non-cooperation with ICE
Meanwhile, local San Diego officials have made recent moves to block local officials from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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San Diego's Board of Supervisors recently voted in favor of a resolution that says the county will not provide assistance or cooperation to ICE. (Daniel Knighton)
San Diego's Board of Supervisors recently voted in favor of a resolution that says the county will not provide assistance or cooperation to ICE, "including by giving ICE agents access to individuals or allowing them to use County facilities for investigative interviews or other purposes, expending County time or resources responding to ICE inquiries or communicating with ICE regarding individuals’ incarceration status or release dates, or otherwise participating in any civil immigration enforcement activities."
San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez pushed back, saying in a statement that her office sets its own rules.
Migrants line up at the southern border in San Diego. (Fox News)
"The board of supervisors does not set policy for the sheriff's office. The sheriff, as an independently elected official, sets the policy for the sheriff's office," her office said in a December statement.
"As the sheriff of San Diego County, my No. 1 priority is protecting the safety and well-being of all residents of our diverse region. While protecting the rights of undocumented immigrants is crucial, it is equally important to ensure that victims of crimes are not overlooked or neglected in the process," she said.
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Hagen said the influx of migrant boats along the San Diego coast has not significantly overwhelmed Guardsmen and, in fact, has shone a spotlight on the issue and brought more resources to his team. He said the Coast Guard wants to strengthen its presence at the southern coastline "to protect the border security and territorial integrity of the United States."
President Donald Trump’s recent immigration-related executive orders include the declaration of a national emergency at the border, halted refugee resettlement, ordered a removal process without asylum, ordered border wall reconstruction and deployed the military to the border.
In the first nine days of Trump's second term, ICE arrested more than 7,400 illegal immigrants and placed nearly 6,000 ICE detainers on individuals believed to be in the country illegally.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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